Will All True Christians Perform Miracles?

Some Christian groups argue that true Christianity will always be accompanied by miracles. One passage that is often pointed to is Mark 16:17-18.

And he [Jesus] said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:15-18 ESV).

If these miracles aren’t happening at my church, does that mean that my church is a fake? Let’s look into this more closely.

First, and most importantly of all, we know that miracles are not the true sign of whether the Holy Spirit is present. Jesus warns us to beware of false teachers who will perform miracles. They will, in fact, be so convincing that Jesus says,

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. (Mark 13:22)

So what is a better sign for telling whether someone is preaching true Christianity? Jesus tells us that we will recognize them by their fruits (Matt 7:15-20). If they are obeying Christ’s commands, we can listen to them. If they are disobeying Christ’s commands, they are false prophets. We don’t look for signs and wonders—that would be the worst sign to look for, since Jesus warned us that false prophets would be doing these signs Where the Spirit is, we will see the fruits of the Spirit and obedience to Christ.

So what did Jesus actually mean in Mark 16? Notice that Jesus says that these signs “will accompany those who believe” rather than all those who believe. Jesus isn’t saying that everyone will be performing miracles.

The context of Jesus’ statement is the proclaiming of the gospel; this is Mark’s retelling of the Great Commission. Interestingly, signs and wonders are often found in areas where Christianity is being preached for the first time. When missionaries spread the gospel in areas that are not historically Christian, they are often surprised to find that visions, healings, and other miracles accompany them. We know that’s what happened in Acts when Christianity was first proclaimed. If it happens frequently in other areas where the first seeds of the Kingdom are being sown, that would seem to be a good interpretation of this passage.

In other words, this passage makes excellent sense with what was observed in Acts and what we observe today. It’s not strange that most churches in the West don’t see constant miracles happening—it fits in perfectly with the message of Mark 16.

However, occasional miracles are not so uncommon, even in the West. I know of a number of people who experienced what seemed to be supernatural occurrences. They simply don’t talk about them very publicly, because people typically don’t believe them, or because the circumstances of the miracle might have been private. So just because you don’t hear about miracles happening all the time, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t happening.

Finally, I should note that this passage is not a good one to build doctrine on. That’s because some of the earliest copies of the book of Mark do not contain it. Most Christian scholars today probably believe that it was a later addition. I believe that Mark wrote this passage (see Why Four Gospels by David Alan Black). However, if there is a reasonable possibility that a passage may not have been written by the apostles, we should take care to focus first on the teachings that we have better confidence in.

But of course, even if the passage was written by Mark as a conclusion for his Gospel, which I think is a very reasonable likelihood, it doesn’t indicate that miracles are the sign of the true church.